ESTATE, a term ordinarily applied to designate landed property. The applica tion has its origin in the feudal system, under which land was not conceived as being capable of absolute ownership but as the property of the Crown, of which subjects were the tenants. The interest of a particular tenant in a piece of land was thus known as his status or estate in reference to it, and this interest was considered to be limited, partly by the nature of land itself, and partly by the reversionary interest of the Crown. The term had not at first the wide application which modern usage has given to it. It was in the beginning employed as appli cable only to lands held on a freehold basis, and did not, as later, include land held in subordination to other superior titles. The term has gradually come to have a general application to landed property held under varying conditions, such as that subject to creditors' rights, the interest of mortgages and leaseholds. Estates of freehold under our legal sys tem include estates held under the three forms of freehold tenure, known as fee simple, fee tail and life estates. Estates
not of freehold are in their nature really tenancies.
ESTE (es't5.), a town in the province of Padua, Italy, 17 miles S. W. of Padua; the ancient Adeste. Pop. about 6,000. Also one of the most ancient and illus trious families of Italy. In the llth cen tury the house of Este became connected by marriage with the German Welfs or Guelphs, and founded the German branch of the house of Este, the dukes of Bruns wick and Hanover. The sovereigns of Ferrara and Modena were of this family, several of them being famous as patrons of letters. The lives of Boiardo, Ariosto, and Tasso were closely connected with members of this house. The last male representative of the Estes died in 1803. His daughter married a son of Emperor Francis I., who founded the Austrian branch of the house of Este, of which the male line became extinct in 1875.